A/N: Fair warning, folks: we are nearing the end!

It was two weeks later when Remus finally left his little cottage for the last time. Sirius had moved to Grimmauld Place almost immediately after their last conversation, and Remus had spent some time getting his affairs in order. He'd spoken with his landlord, finished up a few odd jobs for Millicent, and wrote to Goro Banden to make arrangements for the coming full moons. And then it was time to face Sirius—and the Order—again. He Apparated to Number 12, Grimmauld Place with nothing but his old case in tow and knocked loudly on the door.

"It's you," Sirius said when he answered. "Took you long enough."

"It's only been a couple weeks, Padfoot," Remus said, trying to ignore the pinch of nerves in his stomach. He hadn't known what to expect from Sirius here, but the other man seemed almost happy as he took in the sight of Remus standing on his front step. The corners of his mouth quirked up in what was almost a smile.

"I missed you, all right?" Sirius said, taking Remus's case from him. Remus flushed at his candor. He'd been surprised by how much he'd also missed Sirius in the last couple weeks, though he couldn't quite bring himself to admit it. "Dumbledore must have sent you the address?"

"Yeah." Remus held up a scrap of paper which read The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London. "He's Secret Keeper, I take it?"

Sirius nodded. "You'll want to burn that," he said, and watched Remus take out his wand to incinerate the piece of paper.

"Mischief managed," Remus said as the last of the ash fell to the ground. He'd said it almost without thinking, and Sirius let out a loud, surprised laugh.

"Come on inside, Moony," he said. "And keep your voice down in the hallway. My mother's portrait is up in there and she's furious that I've brought all this riffraff into the house, myself included. Miserable old hag. And don't touch anything else, either. This house is full of Dark magic."

Remus followed Sirius through the doorway, intrigued. It was dim and dusty inside, and he could barely make out a few horrifying looking artifacts. He thought he saw an umbrella stand shaped like a trolls' leg—or maybe it was a real troll's leg—and were those house-elf heads up on the walls? He shuddered to think that Sirius and Regulus had grown up in such a place.

Despite the grim surroundings, the sounds of people laughing and talking rang throughout the house. When Sirius led Remus into the sitting room, he was surprised to recognize the faces of several of his former students. He spotted Hermione Granger and Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny Weasley, all of them gathered around a box full of rather disturbing looking artifacts.

"Professor Lupin!" a chorus of voices called out as Remus stared at them all in surprise.

Sirius snorted. "They've been calling you that ever since they got here," he told Remus with an amused smile. "It's absurd, really."

Remus glared at him, half-amused and half-exasperated. But he was touched at the students' excitement. "Please, call me Remus," he told them. "I'm not your professor any longer. It's wonderful to see you again. Are you all in the Order?"

Fred sighed loudly. "No. We're too young, according to Mum—"

"—And Dumbledore," George finished. "Even though we're of age now." He flicked his wand and sent a couch cushion flying at Ron's head as if to prove his point. "We can do magic and Apparate but we can't help the Order. It's not bloody fair."

Ron glared at George and threw the cushion back at him. "Stop it, you wanker," he muttered, then glanced up at Remus. "Sorry, Professor."

Sirius laughed, and Remus grinned at the unexpected sound. "Your professor has said far worse than that himself, if I recall correctly," Sirius said, shooting a glance at Remus.

"Come now, Sirius, you'll blow my cover," Remus said, smiling broadly at him. "But Sirius is right, Ron, no need to apologize to me." He turned toward the twins. "You know, in the first war, we had to wait to join the Order till we graduated, too." Remus glanced at Sirius out of the corner of his eye. "The waiting just about killed Sirius."

Sirius nodded emphatically. "'Focus on your studies!' 'Practice your curses!' 'Maintain unity between the Houses!''" he said in an uncanny imitation of Dumbledore. "Felt like a load of bullshit to me."

Remus joined in the students' laughter and felt some of the nervous tension leave his chest. "As a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, I must say that Dumbledore's advice is very good, especially the bit about practicing your curses," he said with a grin. "But as your former professor, I can't say I disagree with Sirius." He glanced about the room again. "Is Harry here?"

"No," said Ron. "And he's not happy about it, either. You should see the letters we've been getting from him."

"Dumbledore thinks he should stay with Petunia Evans—I mean, Dursley—for a while longer yet," Sirius explained. "Not really sure why, but you know Dumbledore. He's always got his reasons, though he's rarely keen to share them with the rest of us." He gave an exaggerated eye roll, and Fred and George exchanged grins.

Remus looked fondly at them all. His own face already hurt from smiling and he'd only been in the house for five minutes. After a moment, he turned back to Sirius and was not surprised to see the other man watching him.

"Come on into the kitchen," said Sirius. "I'll make a pot of tea and give you the full tour. And you lot, be careful with that box," he said sharply to the Weasleys and Hermione. "God knows what my mother kept in there." Remus waved to the students—he couldn't help thinking of them that way—and followed Sirius out of the room.

"Dumbledore invited them to stay," said Sirius. "Noisy lot, but it's better than being alone, and they volunteered to help clean out the place." He glanced back at Remus. "What are you grinning about?"

Remus looked sheepishly at him. "Oh, just thinking of how much Fred and George remind me of you and James. I could've given them so many detentions when I was teaching last year."

Sirius's eyes narrowed, and for a moment, Remus thought he'd misread Sirius's mood and made a mistake in bringing up James. But then something seemed to crack open across Sirius's face, and he let out a sudden bark of laughter. "Bet you looked the other way, didn't you, Professor Moony? Just like you did for James and I when we were at school."

Remus smiled, relieved. "Maybe I did," he said evasively. "Who am I to interrupt the carrying on of the Marauders' good work?" They were both laughing when they entered the kitchen together, and Remus suddenly felt lighter than he had in months—years, even. Maybe it would be all right after all, staying here with Sirius. They were different, but maybe some things could be the same.

In the kitchen, Remus was surprised to see the Auror who had searched his house last summer reading a newspaper at the table. She smiled broadly at them when they entered.

"Wotcher, Lupin," she said brightly. She looked more or less the same than she had the last time he'd seen her, except that her hair was now a cheerful shade of pink.

"Hello—Tonks, isn't it?" Remus asked. Sirius began rustling about at the counter, putting on a pot of tea, and Remus sat down at the table beside her.

"You remember!" she said delightedly. "Did you just arrive?"

Remus nodded, flushing a bit at the memory of their last meeting. "Of course I remember," he said. "Listen, I'm sorry I was so rude to you last summer. I was caught off guard, and—"

"It's not a problem," she said quickly. "I wasn't exactly bringing you good news. And then I broke something of yours, didn't I? What was it again? It's a bit difficult to keep track, you see..."

Remus laughed, and Sirius turned from the tea kettle at the sound, glancing curiously at him. "Yes, the bedside lamp," Remus told her. "It's fine though, no harm done."

There was something rather disarming about Tonks that Remus found he liked very much, and he was glad to see that she was to be part of the new Order. He glanced at her newspaper. "Are you reading the Daily Prophet?"

"Yeah," Tonks said with a frown. "But there's nothing of interest, as usual. The Ministry is really covering up any mention of You-Know-Who, and they're all too keen to discredit Harry and Dumbledore and anyone else who believes he's back."

Remus grimaced. In his brief burst of happiness, he'd almost forgotten the real reason they were all here. "Damn the Ministry," he said shortly. "And damn Fudge too, for that matter." He frowned at an image of the Minister of Magic that was smirking up at them from the front of the paper.

Tonks grinned at him and flipped the paper over. "I knew I liked you, Lupin."

Remus blushed, unsure how to respond. He glanced over at Sirius again, who was digging about the cupboard for the teacups. He was looking a little better these days, Remus noticed. Molly Weasley must be making sure he was getting enough to eat. His face was less thin and his clothes even fit better. Remus's eyes trailed the length of Sirius' body. Much better, in fact, though the cut of his jeans was rather odd and dated. Remus smiled, wondering if Sirius had dug them out of the closet in his childhood bedroom. He seemed happier, too. The house full of people suited him, or maybe it was the fact that he finally had something to do. It would be even better when Harry finally arrived, he thought.

Tonks was watching him when he finally turned away from Sirius. "The pink hair is nice," he said quickly, more to cover his embarrassment at being caught staring at Sirius than anything else. "Much better than the purple. And, er, you can call me Remus."

There was a pause as Sirius approached the table with a cup of tea for each of them, and Tonks' eyes flickered from Remus to Sirius and back again.

"You like the pink, then? Mad-Eye hates it, so I thought I'd keep it around," she said at last, with a smile at Remus. She paused, and her expression grew more serious. "By the way, I, ah, heard about the anti-werewolf legislation last year. Terribly sorry about that. I don't know what the Ministry's playing at."

Remus stared at her, his teacup nearly slipping out of his hand in his surprise. Sirius's hand darted out to steady it as he sat down beside Remus.

"Sorry!" Tonks said quickly. "I shouldn't have brought it up."

"It's all right," Remus said, swallowing hard. "I mean, thanks." He'd had never had his lycanthropy come up in casual conversation with anyone other than the Marauders. He looked curiously at her. "And you—you don't…"

"Care that you're a werewolf?" she said with a warm smile at him. "No, of course not. Why would I?'

Remus breathed a sigh of relief and smiled back at her. Maybe some things had changed for the better over time, after all.

"I didn't know you knew my cousin," Sirius said later, with the hint of an edge in his voice. Remus was following him up the stairs to his room, lugging his old case behind him. Sirius's earlier lightness seemed to have evaporated at some point in the afternoon, and Remus wasn't sure why.

"Your cousin?" Remus said, perplexed. "Oh, right. Tonks." He'd almost forgotten that Tonks was Sirius's cousin Andromeda's daughter. "Yeah, she was the one who came by to tell me you'd escaped last year. Searched my house, as a matter of fact."

Sirius snorted. "Guess she liked what she found."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Remus asked, his face flushing.

"Don't be dense, Moony. She couldn't keep her eyes off you, could she?"

Remus nearly dropped his case down the stairs. "Come off it. She's young enough to be my daughter, Sirius."

Sirius turned around at the top of the stairs and looked incredulously at Remus. "Give me a break, Remus. Were you fathering children I didn't know about when we were second years?"

Remus didn't answer. He'd thought things were going well between them today, but then again, Remus couldn't quite read Sirius these days. Was he joking? Was he jealous? Was he suggesting that Remus pursue something with Tonks? In any case, it was irrelevant. There was no way somebody like Tonks would be interested in an unemployed, grey-haired werewolf like him. He frowned. As if he needed one more thing to be uncertain about now that he was sleeping in Sirius's house.

Sirius ushered him down the hallway. They were on the top floor of Grimmauld Place now, and there were only two doors at the top of the stairs. A sign above one of them read "Do Not Enter Without the Express Permission of Regulus Arcturus Black."

"Here's your room," Sirius said, gesturing toward it. "The other one's mine." His hand brushed the small of Remus's back as he showed him through the door, and Remus felt a shiver go through his body. So he and Sirius would be alone up here on the top floor. That's good, he told himself quickly. Because of the nightmares...He wanted to ask Sirius how he'd been sleeping lately, but he didn't know how to broach the subject.

The room was small but tidy, decorated in green and silver—Slytherin colors. "It—ah—it was Regulus's," Sirius said unnecessarily. "Haven't cleaned it yet, so it's a bit dusty, but it should be safer than the others. Reg might have been a Death Eater, but he didn't leave Dark stuff lying around his room like the rest did." Sirius glanced at the Black family crest painted over the bed. Toujours Pur. Always Pure. "Sorry about that," he said grimly.

"It's fine," Remus said softly, remembering just how very young Regulus had been when he lived here, and how young he'd been when he died. He suddenly felt extremely aware of Sirius' body standing so very close to him, their arms brushing against one another in the narrow doorway.

"I didn't want anyone else in Reg's room," Sirius said quietly. "A bunch of Weasleys pawing through his things. But I knew you'd, well—you knew Regulus. You understand."

"I do," Remus said, glancing at Sirius's tired face. He remembered the night they'd found out Regulus had died, Sirius sitting hunched over at the table with Dumbledore, his head his hands, and later, the way he had cried in Remus's arms in bed. The new Order—the Weasleys, Hermione, Harry, Tonks—they'd never know what it had been like back then.

Remus reached for Sirius's hand and squeezed it, feeling that familiar shiver go through his body. Sirius looked up him, startled, and Remus met his gaze.

"I'm glad to be here, Sirius," he whispered.

Sirius exhaled heavily and gripped Remus's hand. "I'm glad you're here, too."